Abrasive articles, such as coated abrasives and bonded abrasives, are used in various industries to machine workpieces, such as by lapping, grinding, or polishing. Machining utilizing abrasive articles spans a wide industrial scope from optics industries, automotive paint repair industries, to metal fabrication industries. In each of these examples, manufacturing facilities use abrasives to remove bulk material or affect surface characteristics of products.
Surface characteristics include shine, texture, and uniformity. For example, manufacturers of metal components use abrasive articles to fine and polish surfaces, and oftentimes desire a uniformly smooth surface. Similarly, optics manufacturers desire abrasive articles that produce defect free surfaces to prevent light diffraction and scattering.
While the abrasive surfaces of the abrasive article generally influence stock removal rate and surface quality, a poor backing material can lead to degradation in other performance factors, such as machine wear and performance. For example, typical backing materials cause wear of mechanical components that secure the abrasive article. In particular, coated abrasive tapes and belts that advance through mechanical systems may wear shoes, back supports, and drums. Further, traditional backing materials may permit swarf and dislodged abrasive grains to become entrained between the backing and support components, causing wear.
To compensate for entrainment of swarf and grains, some manufacturers have turned to anti-static and hard surface coatings. However, such coatings often are difficult for a machine to secure, reducing machine performance. For example, such coated backings often lead to poor advancement of abrasive tape products through a machine or lead to bunching of tape in grind areas of the machine, each of which lead to down-time for repairs.
In order to secure the abrasive article to the tooling machine, backings are typically coated with anti-slip layers containing abrasive mineral fillers. Although the anti-slip layer increases the adhesion of the abrasive tape to the tooling machine, the traditional anti-slip layers and the abrasive mineral fillers result in tool wear. In particular, the abrasive mineral fillers can ultimately affect the life of the machine.
As such, an improved abrasive product including an improved backing material would be desirable.